Only 40% of Indians warned could act before disaster struck, finds global poll

As much as 84 per cent of Indians impacted by a disaster in the past five years were warned, above the global figure of 80 per cent. But only 40 per cent of those warned were able to act on the warning, against 64 per cent globally, according to new global research from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, an independent global safety charity with ‘a mission to engineer a safer world.’ 

The new World Risk Poll report, From alert to agency: What turns warnings into action, draws on more than 143,000 interviews conducted by Gallup across 140 countries and territories in 2025. Adults affected by a disaster were asked about the event that had impacted them most during the previous five years, whether they received warnings and if they were able to act.

Household disaster plan

The research is published alongside the companion reports, A resilient life: How well-being shapes the capacity to cope, which tracks the Poll’s Resilience Index, and After the storm: How disasters reshape resilience and trust. The research comes as countries work towards the UN’s goal of protecting everyone through early warning systems (EWS) by the end of 2027, a statement from Lloyd’s Register Foundation said.

From Nepal’s deadly August floods to the wildfires that devastated parts of Europe, recent disasters have tested how well countries can get people to safety. More than a third of people who received a disaster warning across the globe were unable to act before it struck. Fewer than half of warned adults in low- and lower-middle-income countries could act, compared with 71 per cent in high-income countries. Having a household disaster plan and a sense of personal agency is linked to a jump in action from 27 per cent to 83 per cent.

Risk Poll Resilience Index

Societal resilience reaches a record 66 out of 100, while individual resilience falls to its lowest ever recorded level on the World Risk Poll Resilience Index. The research points to the need for multi-channel alerts and investment in household preparedness, as nearly 220 million adults impacted by a disaster in the past five years received no warning despite 77 per cent of them owning a mobile phone.

Back home, six in 10 warned Indians received their warning through three or more channels, which the reports highlight as the point where warnings start to make a real difference. Confidence in institutions is high: 63 per cent think the national government is well prepared for a disaster, against 53 per cent globally, and 63 per cent say the same for local governments.

Personal agency weakens

India ranks 21st of 139 countries for societal resilience. A household plan is the missing piece. Among warned Indians with a plan, 70 per cent were able to act, compared with 21 per cent of those without one. Only 21 per cent of households have a plan, and only 25 per cent of Indians feel able to protect themselves and families

Personal agency has weakened in India by 26 percentage points since 2023. This is part of a wider global trend: average individual resilience worldwide has fallen to its lowest level since the index began, with India, Pakistan and Indonesia among the populous countries where the drop was most pronounced. 

The gap between being warned and being able to respond is widest in low-income countries, where people are also the most likely to be affected by a disaster. One in five adults, an estimated 1.1 billion people, has been impacted by a disaster in the past five years but almost 220 million of them received no warning at all. 

Published on November 3, 2026